As said lets just agree to disagree.Read any comment I make about Apple as 'NOT addressed to you' or an attempt to 'change your view'.Hopefully we can stop this argument which we will never resolve to our mutual satisfaction.

And I now slightly regret my last post, wherein I ignored the 'somebody else has posted' warning. Guilty as charged?

Now, let's establish, what are Microsoft really up to? I am genuinely interested, as we need to replace our existing XP box soon, and I gather it is all but impossible to build a new XP box anymore with latest (even if old) set of updates.

The updates are KB3068708 ("Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry" and mandatory) KB3075249 ("Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7") and KB3080149 (also an "Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry", both optional).

Ummm.. just out of curiosity I searched for one of those. (The one that mentioned Win7) The deed is already done for KB3075249. I haven't checked the others

You can de-install.I have just done that for all three.Then mark them as hidden.

The updates are KB3068708 ("Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry" and mandatory) KB3075249 ("Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7") and KB3080149 (also an "Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry", both optional).

Ummm.. just out of curiosity I searched for one of those. (The one that mentioned Win7) The deed is already done for KB3075249. I haven't checked the others

You can de-install.I have just done that for all three.Then mark them as hidden.

It's also worth pointing out that the majority of update descriptions are several notches below helpful ('install this update to resolve issues in windows'). So even if you're manually updating, you need to google every kb id to find out what it really does. Something most people likely have neither the time nor the inclination to do.